Getting comfortable with studio

[panteragstk]

I just started using studio so I could get used to moving around so I could begin creating my own Music UI. One of the things I've been wanting to do was simply be able to launch external apps within sage. I've created a menu item that will launch boxee, but then sage doesn't quite act right after it has been executed. Also, when I import the stvi there are lots of entries that weren't there before such as buttons (repeated numerous times). I know I'm missing something simple, but this kind of stuff is very new to me so I'm going to learn as I go. Here is a screenshot of what I've done. What seems to be missing?

[jaminben]

The first thing that you really want to be wary of is active imports.... you really should disable these. Use Gregs tools to disable/enable them easily.

EDIT

TIP:
I noticed yours are still active via your screenshot...... at the top it says ***IMPORTS ACTIVE***

[GKusnick]

That's not a menu item; that's a menu. But you haven't actually defined any content for that menu, so it's no surprise that it does strange things when you load it. With nothing to display, not even a background image, what you're likely to see is just leftover text and graphics from the previous menu that your menu didn't bother to erase.

If your idea is to have a Boxee item on some other menu (say one of the submenus of the Main Menu, for instance), then you should put your Boxee action code there, under that item, instead of trying to create a whole new menu for it. A menu would be appropriate only if you're trying to create a complete new screen in the Sage UI for Boxee-related commands. In that case you'd need to follow the example of existing menus to display background images, organize content into panels or tables, and so on.

If you haven't yet worked through the tutorials in the Studio manual, you should do so, since they're really the best introduction to Studio basics (like the difference between menus and items).

Regarding your STVI issue, it's hard to know what's going wrong there without some idea of what steps you took to generate the STVI and how you're loading it back into the STV. There isn't (yet) a tutorial in the manual for this but there have been several newbie-level posts in the last year or so covering the basics of STVI creation.

[panteragstk]

The reason I'm creating a menu instead of an item (which is way easier) is because of the way ortus lets you add menus. Those tutorials are very helpful, but my brain could only handle through 11 before I couldn't take in any more info.

I modeled my menu after the email menu that does nothing. Everything works fine, but when I use any plugins (specifically ortus) it creates quite a few entries. I created the stvi by choosing export and then saved the file. I even just saved the sagetv7.xml and everything works great until I enable a plugin. I know I'm missing something. Sage works great, but I know that those entries aren't supposed to be there.

[jaminben]

I never use export.... try using Tools > STV UID File Difference. Basically load the default SageTV7.xml and save it as something else so you always keep a good untouched copy of SageTV7.xml, then create your mod. Run the STV UID File Difference against the untouched SageTV7.xml and your new file.... when you run this it will show a list of all the modified lines of code between the original and your modified xml. If that all looks good save it and thats your STVi. You can then load/enable the Ortus Dynamic main menu and import the STVi you just created and link to your "Menu Widget". If you try and edit whilst any Ortus plugins are active and run against the SageTV7.xml you will create duplicate menu items when reloading/enabling the Ortus plugins.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by jaminben

I never use export.... try using Tools > STV UID File Difference. Basically load the default SageTV7.xml and save it as something else so you always keep a good untouched copy of SageTV7.xml, then create your mod. Run the STV UID File Difference against the untouched SageTV7.xml and your new file.... when you run this it will show a list of all the modified lines of code between the original and your modified xml. If that all looks good save it and thats your STVi. You can then load/enable the Ortus Dynamic main menu and import the STVi you just created and link to your "Menu Widget". If you try and edit whilst any Ortus plugins are active and run against the SageTV7.xml you will create duplicate menu items when reloading/enabling the Ortus plugins.

Ok. Thanks I'll try that. I learned the hard way not to have any plugins open. I have a long way to go, but studio isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I didn't realize it was a programming language. I'll play with it some more and get all the extra menu options I want then I guess it is time to dive into creating my own ui. Wish me luck.

[tmiranda]

When using studio I like to change the UID prefix that will get used so when you add new widgets it's easy to see what you added. This is not a necessary step, but once you start making many changes in the STV it makes it much easier to see what you changed.

[panteragstk]

After using the STV UID tool I've created 2 stvi's that add a menu for boxee and hulu desktop. I've attached the stv uid screen for the boxee menu. It looks fine to me, but when I load ortus all kinds of junk gets loaded into the stv. What am I missing?

[tmiranda]

The UID diff looks OK. Post a screenshot of what it looks like in Studio.

What kinds of "junk" gets loaded? Ortus will load lots of stuff so are you sure it's not just ortus?

[jaminben]

You can send me the STVi and I'll test it out on mine to see. You should just need to import it.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

The UID diff looks OK. Post a screenshot of what it looks like in Studio.

What kinds of "junk" gets loaded? Ortus will load lots of stuff so are you sure it's not just ortus?

I'll post a screenshot so you can see. It is stuff that isn't present when ortus is loaded.

Originally Posted by jaminben

You can send me the STVi and I'll test it out on mine to see. You should just need to import it.

I've attached it so you can see what's going on.

[jaminben]

That STVi imports and gets added to the Ortus dynamic main menu just fine (launches whatever .exe I name in the code). All I did was:

1. Have a good clean copy of the Ortus plugin installed in the default STV.
2. Used Studio to import your STVi (File, Import menu).
3. Restarted the client so that the new menu could be seen in the Ortus plugin.
4. Added a new main menu and selected Boxee as the action.

I think somewhere your copy of the default stv / Ortus plugin has got messed up and thats where your finding your problems.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by jaminben

That STVi imports and gets added to the Ortus dynamic main menu just fine (launches whatever .exe I name in the code). All I did was:

1. Have a good clean copy of the Ortus plugin installed in the default STV.
2. Used Studio to import your STVi (File, Import menu).
3. Restarted the client so that the new menu could be seen in the Ortus plugin.
4. Added a new main menu and selected Boxee as the action.

I think somewhere your copy of the default stv / Ortus plugin has got messed up and thats where your finding your problems.

Thanks. I will start from scratch.

[panteragstk]

That was it. A clean install fixed the problem. I imported the new ones into my main client and they did not cause any issues. I guess I can start on my other project now. Let the work begin. Thanks guys.

[panteragstk]

Ok. I've gotten good at creating my own menu's to launch external apps, but I need a way to make sage sleep when I do that. I can't find an API call that makes that happen. I was trying to be clever and use eventghost, but it doesn't recognize that sage is even open.

Thoughts?

[Fuzzy]

try

SageCommand("Power Off")

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

try

SageCommand("Power Off")

Now I feel dumb...I've tried looking (not too hard), but is the list of sage commands in the api calls list?

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Now I feel dumb...I've tried looking (not too hard), but is the list of sage commands in the api calls list?

Chapter 5 of the User Manual.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Chapter 5 of the User Manual.

Thanks, I was over-thinking.

EDIT: BTW, who put the arcade test and mame launcher stuff in studio?

[panteragstk]

OK. So I'm ready to start making a replacement UI for music. I have been advised to try modifying the stock ui to make it into what I want. I looked into doing that, but the way it is set up in studio will make it very difficult to accomplish what I want to do. The reason is there is quite a bit of flexibility in the current ui, but I'm wanting something a bit different.

For example: You can now sort by song, album, artist or whatever. I'd like to just organize by artist only and then drill down to albums within an artist and songs within that album. I can see the value of drilling down from artist then to a big list of songs, but the fact remains that I want artist to be the primary focal point.

Would modifying the stock ui accomplish this easier than starting from scratch?

How would you guys do it?